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The State Normal 
School 



FOR 



Colored Students 

AT 

Montgomery 

ITS HISTORY FOR THIRTY-SEVEN YEARS 

AND 

ITS NEEDS OF TODAY 

BY 

ITS PRINCIPAL, W. B. PATERSON. 

Respectfully Presented to the Members of the Present 
Legislature for their Consideration. 

PARAGON PRESS 



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(3) 



s FOREWORD. 

ABill for the further support and maintenance of this 
Institution has been introduced into both branches of the 
Legislature. The Board of Trustees consists of the Gov- 
ernor and State Superintendent of Education, ExOfficio 
members. 

Hon. H. S. D. Mallory, Selma; 

Hon. J. Kirkman Jackson, Montgomery; 

Hon. J. M. Davison, Brewton; 

Dr. C. A. Stakely, Montgomery; 

Wm. B. Jones, Esq., Montgomery. 
At a meeting of this Board held in the Governors office,. 
January 29th, the condition of the Institution and its 
needs were discussed, and it was unanimously decided to 
introduce this Bill, the provisions of which will be stated 
below. 

The present Principal is familiar with the work of the 
school since its organization, and has been Principal for 
thirty-three years. His work as teacher of colored stu- 
dents now covers a period of forty-one years, and he con- 
siders himself fortunate that there are a few members of 
both houses that are conversant with his work during that 
entire time. 

ORIGIN OF THE SCHOOL. 

The Land Grant Act of 1862 from which originated the 
State Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges of the various 
States, could not be taken advantage of in Alabama till 
after the Civil War. In fact, it was ten years after its 
passage before Alabama through its eLgislature took ac- 
tion. The 250,000 acres of Public Lands donated by the 
General Government were sold for $260,000.00, which 
was turned into the treasury, and the State has paid 
$20,800.00 annually to Auburn since that time. The act 



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establishing the Agricultural College at Auburn was ap- 
proved February 26, 1872. 

As this money came from the General Government, the 
following Legislature deemed it fair and proper to do 
something for the colored students of the State, and an 
Act was passed and approved December 6, 1873, to estab- 
lish a State Normal School and University for Colored 
Students. This was located at Marion, Perry County, the 
property of a school there, being donated by the Negroes 
for that purpose. Two thousand dollars annually were 
appropriated for its support with the understanding that 
this amount should be increased as the wants of the lNegro 
Race demanded. 

This was the first Normal School established in the 
State and for many years was the only school of its kind 
for Negroes in the South. At present it is the only Color- 
ed Normal School in Alabama under State control. 

HISTORY. 

The progress of the school was slow at first, as there 
were but few colored public school to prepare students. 
In 1878 when the present principal took charge of it, he 
found the enrollment of the previous session had been 
68. For the first time since the organization of the school, 
the principal had the confidence and hearty co-operation 
of both Trustees and patrons, and the school grew rapidly 
till the attendance reached nearly 500 in 1887, when it 
was deemed advisable to remove the Institution from 
Marion. The Board of Trustees re-established the school 
at Montgomery, but opposition developed against the lo- 
cation of the school here. The matter was carried into 
the Courts, and the school was left without funds for tho 
next year. At the next meeting of the Legislature the 
Act of Removal from Marion was again passed, carrying 
$15,000.00 for building purposes and $7,500.00 for annual 
maintenance. Six thousand dollars of the above $15,000.- 



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00 for buildings was to be paid out of the educational 
fund due the school, for the previous year, so that only- 
nine thousand dollars were paid out of the General Funds 
of the State. This amount represents all that the State 
has given to the school for buildings or equipment in thir- 
ty-three years. 

When the Board, appointed by Governor Seay, met in 
May 1889 to locate the school, objections were again made 
to its location near this City, the objectors relying on a 
proviso in the Act giving any Community the right to ob- 
ject. But as the Act passed used the word City instead 
of Community, and as the location was half a mile outside 
of the City, they had no right to object. This, if fully 
written, would form a most interesting chapter in the his- 
tory of the school, but is only mentioned here that the 
standing of the school then, may be compared with that 
of today, after an experience of 24 years. The school is 
•within sight of the Capitol and its record during that 
time is an open book. The City has taken it in and given 
the students paved side- walks from the school to the heart 
of the City. During the year when State aid was not 
available the school was kept going by the colored citizens 
of Montgomery with about 300 pupils. The enrolment 
today is 1078. 

PROPERTY. 

The property today consists of five acres of land, one 
twostory brick building and five frame buildings. The 
land, buildings and equipments are well worth $75,000.00. 
The State, through its Board of Trustees, appointed by 
the Governor, holds all this property in fee simple title. 
Of this amount only $9,000.00 has been contributed from 
the General Funds of the State, the balance has been 
given by the colored people themselves. Whenever the 
school has been in need they have helped, and this con- 



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fidence of theirs in the people of the State demands in 
return that the people "tote" fair with them. 

INCOME. 

In 1889 the school was put on an equality as to income 
with the white Normal Schools of the State and given an 
appropriation of $7,500.00 annually. Later $1,000.00 an- 
nually from the Agricultural Fund was added to this. Up 
until two years ago it was a beneficiary of $1,500.00 or 
$2,000.00 from the Peabody Fund, but was dropped then. 
For several years it received $3,500.00 annually from the 
John F. Slater Fund, but $500.00 of this was cut off this 
year. The management of these funds claim that their 
object is to help younger institutions and that Alabama 
should support our school. Tuition collected from the 
preparatory grades of the school amounts to about $4,- 
000.00 annually. This brought the income up to about 
$17,000.00 annually. Last year and the present it has 
dropped to $15,000.00, leaving a deficit in two years of 
$4000.00. On an average attendance of 1,000 students 
the per capita expense is only $15.00. The per capita ex- 
pense of the colored schools of the same grade through- 
out the South runs from $60.00 to $200.00, and we find 
no Normal School anywhere run at less than $50.00 per 
student. 

THE WORK OF THE SCHOOL. 

It is not a college, only an elementary school with in- 
dustrial features. It is located within 75 miles of 75 per 
cent of the Negro population of the State. It furnishes 
teachers for the colored public schools and has the repu- 
tation of furnishing the best. It draws its patronage 
from 33 Counties in the State, including all the Black 
Belt. 

Probably no school was ever begun under more unfa- 



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vorable auspices than this, twenty-four years ago. This 
opposition has been overcome and those citizens who have 
become conversant with the school, its methods and re- 
sults, have heartily endorsed it. The instruction given 
has been elementary but thorough, the discipline has been 
such as to inculcate respect for authority and obedience 
to law, and good habits have been taught by precept and 
example. There is always an atmosphere of work and 
obedience around the students that must affect their af- 
ter lives. 

The apparent disadvantages under which the work of 
the institution has been carried on has redounded to the 
good of the students. Possessing no elaborate buildings 
and no dormitories with modern improvements such as 
most colored schools of much smaller size have, country 
students who have come here have been trained for serv- 
ice without being educated out of their environment. The 
result is they return home after getting their education 
and give their service as teachers or otherwise to the 
State. 

The habit of work is indelibly stamped upon the char- 
acter of all and no loafers or vagrants are to be found 
among them. 

There has been enough and to spare of discussion of the 
Negro Problem. A residence of 42 years in Alabama, all 
but one of which I have spent in the school room with 
negro pupils, and during all of which I have never for- 
saken my own people, socially or politically, gives me a 
claim to a fair knowledge of this question, and so far as 
I can judge today it is simply a question of his education. 
By education I mean training — preparation for work or 
service — to make a living honestly and honorably. My 
experience with the negro has not been confined to the 
schoolroom alone. For years I have employed them as 
laborers, and had the usual experience of others, both in 
the kitchen and in the garden, with shiftless and unre- 
liable employees. 



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One great mistake concerning the negro has been cor- 
rected, so far as Alabama is concerned. Another mistake 
has been made in allowing his education to drift along 
without proper supervision, so that most of the money 
given to the colored country schools has been virtually 
thrown away. 

That the negro can be trained in domestic service and 
the mechanic arts was abundantly proved before the war. 
If those in authority and have charge of his schools take 
hold of him in the right way, he can be so trained yet; 
but the Negro himself cannot do it. 

The position taken by Governor Hoke Smith *n his In- 
augural address four years ago, and Ex-Governor North- 
ern in a later address in Virginia is the correct one and 
the white people should take hold of the negro schools 
and carry out these ideas. 

The Negro is here and so far as we can see, will be 
here for sometime to come. His labor is valuable. It 
behooves every patriotic citizen to develop that labor to 
highest capacity. No foreign labor can displace the negro 
on the farm, and all such labor that comes into Alabama 
will not meet the demands of the mining and manufactur- 
ing districts. 

The colored country schools should be taken hold of; 
the white Trustees and Superintendents should exercise 
more than a nominal supervision of them. 

The white people should take hold of the negro and 
elevate him for the good of the State as well as for his 
own. If we think he ought to get an elementary book 
education and be taught to work, we should take hold 
of him and do that. If he is to be taught respect for au- 
thority and obedience to law it must be done in the schools 
while he is susceptible of training. It cannot be done in 
reform schools or penitentiaries. 

If the negro is to be kept in the country he must have 
more and better schools, which means more and better 
teachers. To produce these teachers this school should 



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be fostered, as it is the only school of such grade sup- 
ported by the State. 

NEEDS OF THE SCHOOL. 

Owing to the loss of funds before mentioned the school 
is in debt today $3,000.00, and it is only through the cour- 
tesy of our bankers that we have been able to keep open. 

The main building is badly in need of a new roof, 
which will cost $1,000.00. The City has extended its 
limits beyond the school and we were notified last year to 
put in proper sanitary arrangements or close up the 
school. At my request the time was extended till your 
meeting, but sanitary connections which will cost $1,000.- 
00 must be made before next fall opening. Surface clos- 
ets for the use of over 1,100 people (teachers and stu- 
dents) must of necessity be a nuisance. The above items 
(total $5,000.00) you are asked to appropriate at once out 
of the General Funds. 

In order to expand and equip the Industrial Depart- 
ment, especially in cooking and the domestic arts, an ap- 
propriation of ten thousand dollars, payable next Octo- 
ber, is asked for. It was feared and prophesied when the 
school was located in Montgomery that it would be impos- 
sible to find a colored cook or housemaid in a few years ; 
yet they are so plentiful now that we hear nothing of this. 
Probably two hundred of our students, male and female, 
are paying their expenses in school by labor in white fam- 
ilies. They work mornings and evenings and Saturdays 
and get board and room and a small payment in money 
weekly. Only about twenty per cent of our students 
complete the full course and graduate. As the diffusion 
of knowledge has become more general and education has 
been put more within the reach of the masses there is a 
decreasing tendency to educated idleness. We desire to 
direct a large part of our time and teaching to the major- 
ity who do not graduate, but who go out to perform in- 



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telligently the work of the masses. The work of the school 
is very much handicapped at present by the want of suffi- 
cient teaching force. We have some teachers teaching 
as many as 60 to 75 pupils, and the funds are only suffi- 
cient to pay them for eight months per yeai, while the 
school term extends over nine months. 

We ask that the annual appropriation be increased by 
$7,500.00 annually to be paid out of the Educational Fund. 
While this is taken from the Educational Fund it will not 
affect white children and will take only about two cents 
per capita from Negro school children of the State. In 
distributing the school funds the County boards always 
appropriate sufficient to run the while schools properly. 

If the above appropriations are made we. will be ready 
to accept an offer from Mr. Carnegie to give us $15,000.00 
for the erection of a library and assembly room, which 
we need. This will be a brick building and which will 
add that much more to the State's property. The City 
has already, through its Council, voted $500.00 annually 
for the support of the library. 

If our requests are granted, the State will own by Jan- 
uary 1, 1912 property worth $100,000.00 for which it has 
paid only $24,000.00 out of the General Funds. 

CONCLUSION. 

The foregoing facts are respectfully presented for the 
consideration of the Legislature. The bitter feeling 
aroused during the decade immediately after the war 
has been mollified so far that every patriotic citizen can 
calmly consider the question, — How can we best train the 
Negro to be of service to himself and to the State? When 
properly handled he is a good mechanic and a good labor- 
er; as a law-abiding citizen and property owner he pays 
taxes of every kind paid in the State; and, as a criminal, 
he paid nearly a million dollars last year into the State 
Treasury. 



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The State can afford to give a little of this to train his 
children. 

If these appropriations are made, the Legislature of 
1915, will find in Montgomery the Model Negro Normal 
School of the South. Then will our ambition of forty 
years be realized. For during all the discussion of the 
Negro and his education, he has left theorizing to others 
believing that, in due course of truce Alabama would 
build up an institution for Negro students, that the best 
people of the State could point to with pride. 



Hollinger Corp. 
pH8.5 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS £ 

019 761 724 A 



Hollinger Corp. 



